Ryerson researcher explores ‘next level’ of gamified education

The Person: Dr. Jason Nolan, a.k.a. ‘Dr. J’, associate professor at Ryerson University’s School of Early Childhood Studies and director of Ryerson’s Experiential Design and Gaming Environments (EDGE) Lab in Toronto.

Nolan is autistic. A high school dropout, he didn’t learn to read properly until his late teens or write properly until his twenties. Following what he calls “a string of dead end jobs,” Nolan returned to high school after finding an inclusive learning environment – one that encouraged him to discover his own unique interests and strengths.

Nolan became a man of letters: B.A., B. Ed., M.A. and Ph. D. He got his first full-time job at 43. He was diagnosed as autistic at 45. Today he researches play, privacy, gaming, virtual worlds, informal learning environments and adaptive design for children with disabilities.

The Project: Nolan co-authored the 2013 research paper ‘Beyond gamification: reconceptualizing game-based learning in early childhood learning environments.’ It challenges the idea that digital game-based learning (DGBL) will revolutionize education in schools. In fact, DGBL may become just another way of standardizing the data-driven, top-down education models that “continue to transform learning and play into joyless performance and productivity outcomes,” he writes.

“The important aspects of learning that occur when children and adults play are exactly what gets filtered out through gamification,” Nolan says. “That leaves only the ‘game layer’, surface-level game features such as badges, achievements or rewards and other ‘incentives’ for consumer loyalty.”

The Progress: Now that he’s finished and released the aforementioned research paper, Nolan is focused on completing a study he began in 2010 on informal learning.

“My research suggests that the value of games and play – for both children and adults – isn’t found in the rhetorics of competition, winning and achievement. It’s actually found in the very elements that gamification leaves behind: the choice of how and when we play, the privacy and autonomy to not be observed and judged while playing, and opportunities to explore experiences that are of intrinsic interest to us,” Nolan says.

The Prospects: “Our work would be of greatest use to the commercial and educational sectors that are interested in moving beyond gamification,” Nolan says. “This next level involves creating environments and contexts where all the elements of informal learning can be accommodated in formal learning environments. Those elements include a choice of what we play, who we play with, how we play, and particularly the contexts in which we play.”

The Passion: As someone who discovered his own particular learning style later in life, Nolan pushes back against educational models that herd all students into the same enclosed box.

“I’m motivated by a desire to help people understand there are ways to successfully bring game-based learning and experiences to students and the public in general,” says Nolan, “ways that don’t seek a one-size-fits-all ‘solution’ to the problem of engaging students, clients and customers.”

After finally finding his own way of learning, Nolan has also found a way to teach others about inclusive education in his own unique voice. As he declared in one self-penned online biography, “I am very happy with who I am and would never want to be anyone else.”

 

photo credit: One Laptop per Child via photopin cc